


Scourge

by Vadianna



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Established Relationship, I needed a posse, M/M, Medieval AU, Revenge, but I thought I should use it anyway, forgive me the Legends characters, probably, the major character death isn't really what you think it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-03 22:30:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6629614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vadianna/pseuds/Vadianna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux invites the wizard clan into his castle to finalize a power transition.  </p><p>Hux does not share.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scourge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shibecafe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shibecafe/gifts).



> For the Kylux Fic Exchange.
> 
> The Legends characters (and honestly, most everybody) are here in name only - I invented what little personality they have. My apologies to Anakin Solo in particular. Since I went with Leia and Han's Legends children, Kylo Ren wound up wearing Ben Skywalker's name. I doubt that's confusing, but I wanted to note it here.

Hux's eyes slid disinterestedly to the door as the heralds announced the coming of the Skywalker clan.  They were proceeded by their filthy dogs, of course, which came everywhere with them.  Most of them were small, yappy things, snapping at the heels of the heralds and the four guards Hux had stationed near the entrance.  As if the guards would help if the Skywalkers decided to be... uncooperative.  Four of the dogs were larger, belonging to the children of Electress Leia and her consort.    One, a brown and white mottled creature with blue eyes, ran up to Hux and started sniffing his boots under the table.  Hux looked down and curled his lip, nodding to a nearby attendant that began slinging raw meat into the corners of the room.  This would keep the dogs occupied for the duration of the meeting, but only because Hux had instructed the attendant to lace the meat with a sleeping powder.  Hux hated having animals in his house.  
  
His gaze flicked back to the Skywalker family.  First Leia, who regarded him coolly, noticing the slight when neither he nor his sister stood as the family walked into the grand main chamber of the castle.  She was flanked her brother, the Elector Luke.  She and Luke were dressed identically in the belted tunics of their wizard order, a pale roughspun cream fabric over dark, simple pants and simple black boots made of waxed canvas, worn under the baggy pants.  The belts were tied cloth.  
  
Hux's father had been insulted by the attire.  Had often ranted that it was embarrassing to have one of the wizards at court, shaming him when he entertained the other nations.  They would appear colorless, their faces cut from stone, the threat in their glares apparent.  They were useful for intimidation, but so clearly not his father's creatures that Hux had often wondered why his father did tolerate them.  
  
Hux looked at Ben, and away.  Ben looked angry, as always, and was wearing a velvet double-breasted jacket in dark blue, trimmed in gold, that hung to the top of his tight black knee-high boots, laced all the way up.  The boots were made of leather, along with the matching black belt of his jacket, which almost made Hux smirk.  The wizards hated using animal product that wasn't given freely, and the skin likely wasn't.  He wore a twist of silver torque around his neck, as did the other wizard heirs.  
  
Jacen and Jaina were dressed, identically of course, in dark cloaks that obscured their clothing, the only thing visible were their long pale necks decorated with the silver torque with their long, pale faces above them.  Their brown hair was cut in identical bob styles, and was slightly wavy.  They had identical looks of disdain on their faces.  Hux couldn't tell them apart.  The distinction had never seemed important to him.  
  
They were trailed by their younger siblings.  Their brother Anakin was quiet, and never seemed to be paying attention.  As many times as Hux had met with and been in the company of the wizards, he had never heard Anakin speak.  The man was over twenty now, wearing something similar to his mother, his tunic dark grey, the silver torque's coloring and his dull brown hair making him look so drab as to be invisible.  Hux often wondered if his lack of vocabulary was an affectation or some sort of vocal or mental impediment.  Or perhaps some sort of mystical wizard meditation practice.  He always forgot Anakin existed unless he was looking at him, so Hux had never bothered to ask Ben.  
  
Rey, the youngest, was also wearing a belted red velvet tunic similar to Ben's, but lacking the style that Ben brought to his.  She sported the ugly broken-down Jedi boots made of canvas, along with brown tights and her silver torque.  Her hair was pulled up onto her head, the only member of the family that had styled it.  Hux appreciated the touch.  Of his cousins, Ben hated her the least, and it made Hux somewhat sympathetic towards her.  Ben liked very few people, so she must have some personality, at least.  
  
Hux raised his eyebrows as he noticed the absence of Leia's consort Han.  Powerless, a domesticated pirate, and something of an idiot - Hux often implied that he wasn't welcome at these functions, but Leia brought him anyway, likely to annoy him.  Hux had heard a nasty rumor about his demise, that he'd gotten into an altercation with Ben over something that Ben... felt rather passionate about.  Hux could guess what that was.  
  
The wizards brought no guards, of course.  Realistically, if they decided to attack, there was very little Hux could do about it.  There were archers in the arrow-slits masked by the decorative patternwork around the second-story top of the grand hall, and murder-holes in the ceiling with men standing by with pots of heated sand (Hux preferred quicklime, but you could smell it, and he didn't want to be so obvious).  These were all built by the Hux ancestors for just such dicey negotiations, and Hux took some degree of pride in exercising them for the occasion.  These men would not be fast enough to save Hux's life, but he hoped he could take at least two of the wizards with him if it came to it.  Hux resisted the urge to study the frescoes and reliefs on wall and ceiling.  It would be too obvious since he'd be thinking about the soldiers, and he knew the wizards likely already knew.  At least, according to Ben they would.  
  
The soldiers might not be able to save his life, but Hux hoped that Ben would.  He wondered if Ben really would stand up to his family, in a pinch.  Ben claimed he would, but Hux knew Ben could be a... difficult creature to control.  He tried not to think about it.  Had thought about it too much already.  
  
Admittedly, if Ben had killed his uncle in a duel as the rumors said, that did bode well for Hux's chances in a fight against the wizards.  But Hux wasn't going to push his luck in that way.  
  
And it woudn't come to a fight.  Not today.  Leia Skywalker had him by the balls.  it was what they had come to discuss.  
  
The Skywalkers stopped in front of the scarred wooden table Hux had positioned in the center of the hall.  It was massive, far larger than was necessary.  Forty feet long and ten feet across, Hux had chosen it for the showmanship.  He and Phay sat in two chairs on one side, with the Skywalkers arrayed in seven chairs on the other.  Neither he nor Phay even bothered to verbally greet them.  
  
"Please be seated.  I would like to begin the negotiations."  Maintaining an air of arrogance, Hux's eyes moved back to Leia, who was looking more than mildly annoyed.  Luke looked confused, as he always did.  Hux's father swore the man was a terror on the battlefield, but Hux had never seen it in him.  Ben bragged often about being able to beat his father in a fight, but Hux wasn't sure he believed Ben's boasting.  Still.  Luke just didn't look like a killer.  Not like his son, and not like his sister.  
  
"Indeed.  I would like to finish this as soon as possible, myself."  Leia pulled out her chair and sat, along with Luke.  The rest of the family sat down afterwards.

"I'm sure you would."  Hux gave her his best insincere smile, then looked down at his hands, held in his lap.  He wore two rings, one on each hand.  On his right hand was his father's heavy gold signet, too big for the middle finger, set with a large ruby that had the family crest etched into its flat face - a kind of hexagon with teeth in the middle.  Hux twisted it around his finger idly, wondering if he'd be allowed to keep it.  On the smallest finger of his left hand, the only finger it fit, he kept the silver band with the blue stone on it, because he was a sentimental fool.  
  
"You and I both know where this is going, _Regent_."  Her sarcasm on Hux's title was unmistakeable.  "It would be far more pleasant if you simply capitulated."  
  
"Pleasant."  Hux tasted the word.  "One of my most winning traits." 

He looked back up at her, wondering if she could see into him.  Just in case, he recalled a memory of Ben and himself sitting in the iron throne on the dais positioned behind him.  They were both naked, Ben was sitting in his lap, facing the entrance, enthusiastically pumping himself up and down, riding Hux's dick.  Hux had one hand clasped over Ben's erection, pumping slowly, the other gripping Ben's ribs, straying up to tangle in Ben's dark hair and pulling, Ben moaning, Hux gripping and pumping harder.  Hux was sweating, sliding against the metal of the chair, panting.  He was thinking about the meeting his father and the wizards were going to have in the room the next day, and how he would rather sit through it thinking about Ben riding him on the throne than have to concentrate on whatever farce his father had come up with.

He managed a genuine smile when he realized the act was coming in handy, yet again, to distract him.  The smile vanished when he realized how many of the wizards were spying on his thoughts.  Only Rey, Anakin, and one of the twins seemed unaffected.  He could see Luke's face pulling down, Ben turning away, blushing (gratifying, but annoying - Ben knew Hux didn't like him in his head unless they were alone).  Leia looked furious.  The prying twin made a disgusted sound.  
  
"Mother," the other twin cut in.  "Don't bother with him.  Just have him sign the contracts and get him out of our sight."  
  
Hux cut a cruel look over to the one who spoke.  Such bluntness was incredibly rude, of course.  Another unsophisticated Wizard trait.  
  
Leia sighed and turned to Luke.  "She's right.  Just get the paperwork and have him make his mark.  He's not going to make this easy."  She turned back to Hux, a more gentle look on her face.  "I know it's hard.  I'm sorry for it.  But you know the laws of your country forbid you from inheriting your father's throne.  It has to be this way."

Hux clenched his jaw and dropped his eyes to the scarred surface of the table, making a mental effort to still the fingers that were twisting his father's ring around his finger.  His father had died a handful of months ago while at war with a country far to the south.  Phay and Hux had finished the campaign, conquered the country, but all the accolades in the world couldn't change the fact that they were bastards, and neither could not inherit by law.  His father's wife had died in childbirth along with the son they had been praying for.  Hux wished them both the pleasure of it.  
  
Phay reached under the table and squeezed his hand, and Hux raised his eyes defiantly to Leia's.  "Of course, I'll sign the kingdom over to you.  Who better to rule it?"  This was sarcasm, because of course he and Phay were perfectly capable, were currently ruling successfully, and had their father's blood running through their veins as surely as that dead baby.  But Hux and Phay were seen as not only bastards, but ruthless.  Which was incredible to Hux, because his father had been quite ruthless, and a little mad, but his reign had been very successful.  But public opinion was indeed in favor of the wizards taking control.  Somehow, the rule of this dour clan was preferable to having tainted royal blood on the throne.  
  
"If you'd like, we could have a little duel right now to settle the question?  Perhaps you'd want to use that sword you _earned_ , Regent?"  The other twin, Jacen, then.  Both the _earned_ and Hux's title were said with as much sarcasm as he could muster.  
  
At this, a dagger was driven loudly and sharply into the table surface.  Luke, Rey, and Ben jumped.  Hux congratulated himself for remaining still, then looked at the small dagger in the table, and up into his sister's face.  She was scowling at Jacen.  
  
"I'd be willing to fight you fairly, wizard.  That is, if you'd like to fight without cowering behind your magic."  
  
Phasma IV was the apple of their father's eye, if he could have been said to have such a thing.  Both peerless and ruthless, she had fallen into the soldier's life far easier than Hux.  She was enormously popular among the ranks, and none could best her in a fight.  She had chosen to wear her full suit of armor to this meeting, which Hux thought a pointless gesture, but it was so much a part of her personality that he indulged her the eccentricity.  It had been polished to a high shine, and each piece was made from the melted-down sword of an opponent she had personally killed.  The helmet, which was forged from the swords of three particularly brutal warlords she had personally conquered, was on the table in front of her, so her cold blue stare and severe, short-cropped blonde hair were visible.  Normally she didn't offer even that much of herself - few knew what she looked like under the armor.  
  
She had been particularly crestfallen with the public opinion against her - her heart belonged to the country, and she would eventually freely give it in battle.  But she was a bastard, much like Hux, and she could not inherit.  Hux also suspected most citizens, including members of the army, thought she might be too touched by battle madness.  The armor was probably too much, in Hux's opinion.  Still, he loved his sister, and couldn't imagine her any other way.  
  
He gazed back over at the twins, unsure again which one had spoken.  They had given Phay identical sneers, and one spoke.  Hux wasn't sure if it was the same one that had made the threat.  
  
"Our magic is fair enough when we fight for your country with it.  Why is it suddenly unfair to duel you with?"  
  
Hux laid his hand across Phay's wrist, which still gripped the dagger tightly and was beginning to shake in fury.  "I appreciate the gesture, but the outcome will be irrelevant.  They were only taunting me."  Here, he paused and let his gaze bore into the twins, first one, then the other.  "They know my strengths do not lie in battle."  
  
"Indeed."  Leia had cut in, looking over to the twins in annoyance.  "We didn't come here to bait Hux and Phasma at the table."  She looked back to Hux, her face softening.  "My apologies.  Would you like to discuss the terms of the agreement one last time before you sign?"  
  
Hux withdrew his hand from Phay's wrist, returned it to his lap, and began twisting his blue ring around his finger.  Phay yanked her dagger noisily from the table and sheathed it, saying nothing.  He leveled his stare at Leia, giving her a closed expression, and nodded once.  He summoned a very clear picture of Ben kneeling in the rushes of his bedroom, swallowing Hux, Hux's hand at the back of his head, trying to stop himself from fucking Ben's mouth as hard as he possibly could.  Ben's dick was hard, leaking onto the floor, and their exertions were crushing the dried plants below them, enveloping them in a sweet grassy smell.  Ben had some of the golden stems snagged in his hair and clinging to his damp back, from when Hux had pushed him to the floor and all but consumed him, leaving vivid red suck marks peppering his pale skin.  
  
Leia dropped her eyes to the document in front of her, but otherwise didn't react.  "You will surrender the rule of the country unconditionally to my family.  All government and military staff will be instructed to cooperate with us, and aid us in a smooth transition.  In return for your cooperation, you and your children will be part of the line of succession.  Phasma IV will marry our heir, Ben Skywalker, and Hux will marry my daughter Rey."  
  
Hux turned to Rey, who was glancing at him and down into her lap with a slight smile on her face.  Hux's stomach clenched.  He had a hard time paying even lip service to this part of the agreement.  He cut Leia off, looking back over at her, unable to keep the severity and distaste out of his expression.  
  
"Is Rey aware of my objections to this arrangement?"  
  
At this, Rey's expression hardened.  She looked over from Hux to her mother.  "No.  I was not aware that Hux had any objections to this."    
  
Ah.  Young, but with the backbone to stand up to her mother.  She would have to have this, growing up with those soulless twins (and possibly literally soulless older brother) as siblings.  
  
Leia scowled at Hux before turning to Rey.  "He's just being difficult.  There's no reason the two of you can't have a successful marriage."  
  
Hux looked directly at Rey.  "Do you know how old I am?  That I'm older than your cousin?"  At this, he looked over at Ben, trying for the first time to do more than catch Ben's expression out of the corner of his eye.  Ben's stare was boring into him, the usual sullen look on his face.  Hux turned back to Rey, who was looking wide-eyed at her mother.  
  
"How old is he?"  
  
"It doesn't matter, does it?  Your grandmother was at least that much older than your grandfather when they married."  
  
"That was a love match,"  Hux cut in helpfully.  He brought his hand up from under the table and rested his elbow on the tabletop, cupping his chin in his hand, purposely showing off the other ring and looking at Leia.  "And does she know what I asked for?"  
  
Leia scowled.  "What you asked for is irrelevant.  The point of the arrangement, _Regent_ , is to mix our bloodlines and have the next ruler be from both our families.  Your request wasn't... in aid of that."  
  
"I can assure you, Electress, neither is your arrangement."  Phay leaned back in her seat, her armor creaking.  As far as Hux knew, Phay was interested in very little aside from fighting wars.  He hadn't known her to be interested in either male or female company, and she fought him hard over this negotiation until they had agreed on a private compromise.  
  
Hux didn't look at her, but he curled a half smile while he kept his head lazily in his palm.    
  
_What is she talking about?_   This, in Hux's head.  He jerked, and looked over at Rey, who was glowering at him.  He frowned.  
  
"That ring belongs to my family, Regent, and I would like it back."  Leia said tightly, after a moment's pause, looking at Hux's hand.  
  
Hux stared deliberately at Rey as he answered.  "The ring belongs to the heir to your clan, if I'm not mistaken.  Does it not, Electress?"  
  
When Leia didn't answer, Hux asked again, still looking at Rey.  "Elector?  Does the ring belong to Ben Skywalker?"  
  
"It does."  Luke answered simply.  It was the first time he had spoken at this table.  It was good enough for Hux.  
  
"Perhaps, Electress, you should ask Ben Skywalker what he did with the ring."  
  
_The Skywalker heir exhanges this with their betrothed?  At least that's what I was told._ This, in his head, to Rey, wondering if she'd pick up on it.  
  
Rey blinked at him.  _How did you get that?_  
  
Hux's gaze shifted from Rey to Ben, who had turned crimson and was looking down into his lap.  Hux knew he was wearing a very similar heavy purple signet ring that served much the same purpose in his own family.  He had stolen it from his father's wife's corpse before she was buried.  
  
"The ring rightfully belongs to Phasma now."  
  
"I don't want it.  Hux can keep it."  Phasma answered flatly.  
  
Hux put his hand back under the table.  He turned to Rey in the uncomfortable silence.  _I won't lay a hand on you, if we have to go through with this travesty.  Do you have a lover?_   It wasn't in Hux's nature to assure people, or to try to make them comfortable, but he couldn't stand the thought of others thinking him capable of taking a woman so much younger than he was.  Especially Rey, who he was growing to like more and more.   
  
At this, Rey looked down and blushed.  Hux looked away, completely uninterested after her assurance was given.  Good for her, having a lover with her overbearing, nosy, mind-reading family looking over her shoulder.  He knew how successful Ben was at maintaining an outside relationship.  
  
"The terms are generous, Regent, even you will have to admit.  You may rule in Arkanis, with Rey, and Phasma can stay here in the castle.  Command the army.  Her children will rule in the future."  
  
Hux sneered.  "I rule in Arkanis because you cannot legally take away my mother's land.  I may be my father's bastard, but I am most certainly the fruit of my mother's loins.  You know our army will not fight with you unless you keep Phay as an ally, and you know she will not fight for you unless you negotiate with me.  I have no illusions about your fondness for me, Electress.  You would expel me from my ancestral homes if you could, drive me out and bar me from ever entering again.  And that's just to keep me away from your nephew.  I know you'd execute me, if you could, for all the conquests I did with my father."  
  
Leia was genuinely angry, more so than Hux had ever seen her.  He was amused.  He had only spoken the truth.  
  
"Those conquests were crimes against humanity, _Regent_ , and those lands will be freed and reparations paid as one of my first official acts."  
  
Hux offered her a sick grin.  "I'm sure such mercy from the throne will make all the difference.  Emptying the kingdom's coffers to pay for people's feelings for the dead is a wise strategic move, Electress."  
  
" _Regent._ "  Hux could hear the sound of wood groaning.  He braced himself without giving any visible sign, worried that she was about to lash out, either consciously or unconsciously, with her power.  
  
She closed her eyes, took two deep breaths, and continued.  "Regent.  Those countries want you dead.  So do we.  But as you say, we need your army, who will not fight without Phasma, who I personally would also like to see dead.  The only way to save your lives, to save you from being torn limb from limb as soon as you step outside this castle without an armed escort, is by making you part of my family.  And even then, I'm not entirely sure you'll even be welcome in Arkanis."  
  
"I know I'm not exactly welcome in your family, either."  Hux couldn't help but smile at her candor.  He turned to look at Phay, who was grinning, her eyes reflecting a similar enjoyment at the thought of being torn limb from limb.  
  
Phay turned back to Leia first, and spoke.  "I have confidence I can handle myself in a mob, Electress.  Though if you're concerned that my death will mean no future heirs, don't be worried on that count.  I can assure you that I will never produce children while I live.  I'm certain that's true of my brother and your nephew as well."  
  
"Alas, the great lines of Skywalker and Hux stop with us."  Hux interjected. 

Leia's brow furrowed, and she addressed Hux.  "I don't understand how you can... simply disregard the secession laws of your country.  After being so personally affected by them.  Don't you want the kingdom to stay in your family?  Do you care about it at all, that it would be thrown into chaos when Ben dies if Ben and your sister produce no children?  Children that would be your sister's and,"  here, she glanced quickly over to Ben, and back to Hux, "your husband's?"

Hux was amused that she was attempting to appeal to the only things she knew he cared about.  As if he was the only one that could talk Ben and Phay into maybe making a child that would inherit, was the only one of the three of them that could see why that was important. 

He smirked.  "How convenient, Electress, that you can bring yourself to reference my influence over Ben when you think it might benefit you."  At this, Leia looked as if she had been slapped.  Hux savored this a moment, and continued, studying the ring that Ben had given him.  "But you misunderstand my motives.  I am, as you know, a selfish man.  Even if my sister was so inclined, I would not let her touch Ben.  And if that weren't the case, as much as I love both of them, the thought of anybody else ruling this kingdom does not sit well with me.  When I die, I would rather see it burned to the ground than continue without me."

It was the most vile thing he could think to say, and he smiled as he was rewarded with looks of shock and disgust from the wizards, all but Anakin, who was staring vacantly at him, and Luke, who was picking at the tabletop and looking as if he'd rather be anywhere else.

Enjoying himself, he thought about Ben again, wondering if any of the wizards were still bothering to read his mind. He was enjoying the thought that he could unsettle them with the explicit details of what he did with Ben in the bedroom.  He thought of Ben's body, illuminated by candlelight, warm and flushed from a recent orgasm, slicked with sweat and his own spent arousal.  It had been cold, and their breaths fogged around their head as Hux ran his hands over Ben's smooth, firm thighs, bending over to suck the mark of his possession on the inside of the left, just below a constellation of three moles.

Hux cut the memory off abruptly.  That had come closer than he'd liked to something else.  
  
Still, he couldn't tell if it was his words or his thoughts that were angering them now.  Leia looked furious, Luke uncomfortable.  Ben had gotten over his embarrassment and was obviously enjoying this show, and Jacen and Jaina looked ready to murder Hux, though that was always true, so it was hard to tell how they felt.  Anakin stared off into space.  Rey was giving Hux a measured look.  
  
Hux sighed.  This was probably enough, and he wanted to move on with his night.  Still.  Unable to resist, he gestured with his hand that had the Skywalker ring on it.  "As long as we're all clear on that, I think we can sign and get this farce over with."  
  
"Certainly.  Then perhaps you and your brother can part on good terms tonight."  One of the twins had spoken up, in a blatant attempt to somehow shame Hux.  Hux and Ben both snorted at the comment.  Hux glared incredulously at the pair, who both met his gaze.  
  
"Your mother was very protective of you.  It should have rightfully been Jaina I was engaged to, correct?"  He looked from one, to the other, looking for a reaction that would give Jaina away.  Neither gave one.  He continued.  "I was told you lead... ascetic lives, and that you would not be marrying.  I responded-"  here, he cut his glare to Leia, who was furious, then back over to Ben, who was leaning forward with a malevolent grin on his face,  "that Jacen was more to my taste, but that I would rather take my own life naked, in front of the entire kingdom, than be alone in a room with either of you."  
  
" _Regent_."  Leia cut in sharply.  "Either you will sign this document and stop insulting my family, or we will leave, and you will have a rebellion on your hands."  
  
Hux turned fully toward her, glowering.  "Your family is insulting enough without my input.  Hand me the document, I will sign it."  Leia all but shoved the paperwork over to him.  Hux looked at it, shuffled through the pages as a matter of show.  He got to the last document, which contained the signatures of Leia and Luke Skywalker, Rey Skywalker, Ben Skywalker, and two blank lines.  
  
Hux raised his eyebrows and looked over at Phay, who had leaned forward to peer at the document.  Phay looked to him with her cold blue eyes, and drew her dagger.  She pricked her thumb with it, smeared the blood over the fingertip, and pressed her bloody thumbprint into the document, passing the dagger to Hux.  Hux took it and did the same, looking back across the table when they were finished.  
  
All the Skywalkers but Ben looked appalled.  
  
"You seal the contract with blood?  That's foul magic."  
  
Phay grinned ghoulishly.  "It's how contracts are made in our family."  With that, she stood, bowed stiffly to her brother, grabbed her helmet, and put it on.  She began to make a slow circuit around the table to exit the room.  
  
Hux watched her go, and turned back to the Skywalkers.  "You'll excuse her.  She's eager to get back to her work."  
  
Jacen and Jaina stood, as one.  "So are we.  We're also looking forward to seeing you only one more time in life.  Excuse us, Regent."  
  
Hux rolled his eyes.  "Charming.  But I insist, you must stay for a meal, to celebrate the union of our two... houses."  
  
Jacen and Jaina stared him down.  Surprisingly, objection came from Luke Skywalker.  "Can't Phasma join us for the celebration?  She's one of the family now, too."  
  
The earnest look on his face, and the honest effort to include his sister almost endeared Hux to the man.  His eyes slid over to Ben, who was looking as if his father had somehow offended him.  
  
Hux smiled, genuinely.  "Of course, Elector.  Phay!"  Hux raised the level of his voice, as Phasma had rounded the long table and was headed towards the main exit to the hall.  "Won't you stay for dinner?  To celebrate with the Skywalkers?"  
  
Phasma stopped in her tracks, and turned to regard Hux.  He could not see her expression, but knew she would be scowling.  Hux momentarily wished for the powers of the wizards, so he could send a silent plea to his sister to comply.  
  
"Yes."  The reply was clipped, and she came back around to Hux's side of the table, sitting down without removing her helmet.  The corner of Hux's mouth quirked, wondering if she was going to sit through the whole meal without eating.  
  
He rose, and gestured to one of the guards, who trotted over.  "Please let the servants know to begin serving the feast.  Bring the musicians, and let the council know the contract is signed, and that they may join us for the celebration."  
  
He turned to Leia, offering her another smile.  He was in a good mood, suddenly, and he could see it was making Leia nervous.  He began to mentally go through a list of the sex acts he was planning to perform with Ben that night, hoping she would pick up on it.  He paid lip service to courtesy, however.    
  
"Please, allow me to share my hospitality with you."  
  
Leia inclined her head, still looking troubled and uncomfortable.  "Of course, Regent."

* * *

  
Soon after the musicians had started and the main course was served, Hux excused himself from the table.  The counselors were loud, and were hitting it off with the Skywalkers.  Even Jacen and Jaina seemed to be holding cheerful conversations, which struck Hux as unlikely.  He was masking his feelings by making a show of being a gracious host, so the only dour holdouts were Phasma and Ben.  
  
He touched Phasma on the shoulder, and leaned forward to tell her to thank Luke on the way out.  He walked around the table to collect Ben, who went with him eagerly, and without turning once to his family.  Hux was sure they all knew what they were doing, as he had been trying to mentally broadcast what he was planning to all of them, to the point that even Ben had told him to stop.  
  
On the way out, Hux bent to pet a dog lying in the corner of the room.  This one was a large dog, probably Ben's, though Hux had no idea if he was as fond of the animals as the rest of his family.  He ran his fingers through the coarse fur of the large animal, which looked more wolfish than like a pet. Untameable.  Hux smiled at the thought.  
  
"Why are the dogs still sleeping?"  
  
"Because I knew it would be a long night, and I fucking hate it when that thing watches us."  
  
Hux couldn't wait.  It had been months.  Not since his father had died and the relations with the wizards had soured.  He held himself back only long enough to throw Ben against the wall next to the door, out of view of the great hall.  He didn't care who saw them.  He kissed Ben roughly, and Ben moaned beneath his lips.  Hux hadn't shaved, and he could feel the stubble drag against the skin of Ben's face.  He rubbed his cheek against Ben's lips, exhaling against Ben's pale, clean-shaven face.  Hux's hand, the one with the blue ring, rose to run his fingers through Ben's long, dark, wavy hair.  
  
"Fuck." Hux muttered, just shy of Ben's ear.  
  
_I missed you_ , he said, only in his head.  Wondering if Ben had continued the intimacy that far yet.  
  
_Hux._   He had.  
  
_Can't wait.  Wanna fuck you now._  
  
Ben squirmed.  _They'll... know, they'll be able to... sense from here-_  
  
Hux bit his ear.  _I've been telling them vividly what I want to do to you for the past two hours.  I don't care if they see us.  That makes it better, as far as I'm concerned.  Letting Jacen and Jaina hear me plunder a wizard of the Skywalker family-_  
  
Hux was getting hard, and he let the hand not tangled in Kylo's hair trail down to the buttons on his jacket, then the laces on the front of Ben's pants.  He yanked the front of the pants free, and began stroking Ben's erection.  
  
Hux bit Ben's ear again, and Ben moved his hands slowly across Hux's shirt, over his ribs and up his back, moaning, until one hand rested on Hux's neck and the other tangled in Hux's short hair.  Hux reached up to grab Ben's hand, finding the ring he had given him there.  He kissed Ben's hand, gently, closing his eyes.  
  
"You got the ring I sent you," he murmured gently against the back of his fingers.    
  
"Yes-"  
  
Hux moved Ben's fingers up to his forehead, pressed them close, pulled away slightly and opened his eyes again to look at the violet stone set in silver.  The ring suited Ben, although he hated that he was a sentimental fool enough to agree to the exchange.  His gaze moves back to Ben's dark brown eyes, which always looked like they were seeing straight through Hux, even when they had been younger.  He had hated it, then, perhaps because he knew that Ben had seen too much of him.  He still did.  
  
To counter this, he dropped Ben's hand and returned his face to the bend of Ben's neck, pushed the silver torque up higher with his nose, put his mouth to his pulse and let it beat against his tongue.  Ben was leaking around the fingertips of his busier hand, the pulse in Ben's neck racing.  He trailed his teeth down Ben's neck, and bit hard enough to draw blood in the muscle between neck and shoulder.  Ben moaned aloud.  
  
"You asshole.  You know I don't like to be bitten."  Hissed through his teeth, and into Hux's ear.  
  
Hux smiled against his neck.  "I think you do."  he murmured, then bit again on the shoulder, rubbing his stubble against the thin, pale skin stretched over Ben's collarbone.  Ben moaned, put his face in Hux's hair.  
  
Hux, impatient now, pulled back from Ben's embrace, truly needing nothing more than to be inside.  He pulled a small jar of oil from his cloak and unstoppered it, tipped it into his palm to empty it, and dropped the jar against the floor to shatter.  
  
He yanked down Ben's pants farther, exposing his smooth hips.  Hux reached around to run his oiled fingers along the cleft of Ben's ass, finding his hole, violating it roughly with one finger.  With the other hand, he unlaced his own pants, freeing his own hard, leaking erection, briefly slicking it with the palm of his occupied hand, then returned to opening Ben.  
  
"I'm not going to be gentle."  
  
"You never fucking are."  
  
At that, Hux shoved another finger in, feeling Ben's tightness, feeling Ben quiver around his fingers.  He was at a bad angle, but there might not be time to find a better position, a different spot, because if he can't plunge into Ben right fucking now-  
  
Ben grabbed Hux's dick and pulled him closer, propping himself up against the wall.  
  
_Just fucking do it.  I can't wait either._  
  
Ben's candor is a surprise, and Hux nearly moaned as he grabbed Ben under the thighs with both hands, pushing him hard against the wall.  Ben wrapped his legs around Hux's waist, his arms around his shoulders to hold himself up.  It feels impossible to Hux, which is one of his favorite things about Ben.  Everything he does is impossible.  Ben is probably using magic.  Hux doesn't care.  
  
It's one of the most ungraceful things Hux has ever done, fucking Ben Skywalker against the wall of the great chamber of his father's palace.  But then again, Ben Skywalker may be the most ungraceful thing Hux has ever done in general.  He resigned himself to the obsession some time ago.  
  
Hux spends himself inside Ben, something he feels like he will never get tired of.  He shakes, still holding Ben up, though it's really Ben holding himself up with magic, because Hux is physically incapable after that orgasm.  He shifts, and Ben lowers his legs to the floor.    
  
Hux dropped to his knees wordlessly in front of Ben, and Ben ran his hands through Hux's hair as Hux eagerly takes Ben's dick into his mouth, licking the leaking tip that has already stained the front of his tunic.  He ran his tongue from balls to tip, wondering how close Ben is.  When Ben sends a series of angry, incoherent noises into Hux's head, he takes the whole thing into his mouth and down his throat, letting Ben fuck his mouth until he spent himself into Hux.  Hux pulled back and licked his lips, looking up into Ben's face.  
  
He raised his eyebrows.  "A room, your highness?"  
  
Ben looked stupidly down into Hux's face.  "A room."  
  
Hux jerked his pants up with one hand and drug Ben away, past a servant who had stopped in the hallway to watch them, and on to his quarters.

* * *

  
After having his way with Ben, slowly, twice more, Hux drifted in and out of a light sleep with Ben in his arms.  During a period of wakefulness, he looked out the window, open despite the cold.  Hux had messily slung a pile of furs onto the bed to keep them warm once they had finished, but the room was cold and his breath steamed the air as he considered the moon.  
  
As a child, he had often fantasized about the moon.  He had once heard a legend that it was a world like their own, that it contained lands and people just like their kingdom did.  That every star that speckled the night sky was just another world with people like Hux and Phay and their mother on it.    
  
But the moon had always been his favorite, owing to Luke Skywalker telling him, when he had asked the wise wizard about the legend as a very young boy, that the wizards had originally come from the moon, and that only magic users lived there.  He had cried in his room that night, devastated that there was a whole world out there open to the boring people his father hated, and Hux would never see it because he didn't have an ounce of magic in him.  He had kept the story to himself, and believed Luke Skywalker far longer than he should have.  Consequently, he had also believed that Ben Skywalker was otherworldly, the handful of times they met when the two of them were growing up.  
  
Perhaps he'd been right.  As infuriating and stupid as Ben was, Hux wasn't sure what it was about him that made him silly, made him want to throw away everything he'd always told himself he wanted.  He liked to think that would take an exceptional person, and Ben Skywalker was not exceptional.  So he had to be at least otherworldly.  He had to be impossible.  
  
Hux turned and buried his face in Ben's mane of dark hair, inhaling and smelling the scent of sweat and Ben.  He closed his eyes and began drifting off to sleep again, when he heard the call of the nightingale through the window.  His eyes shot open, and he sat up.  
  
"Ben."  He grabbed Ben's shoulders and shook until Ben groaned and rolled back under the furs.  
  
_You're the one who fucked me outside the main hall, within range of my family.  I'm not leaving this fucking bed until my aunt comes up here and drags me kicking and screaming._  
  
"I'll drag you kicking and screaming from the bed if you don't get up.  Pull on your tunic, I have a surprise for you."  
  
Ben cracked his eye.  "Will I like it?"  
  
Hux grinned ghoulishly.  "Probably not."  
  
Ben opened both his eyes and sat up, looking around the room at the wreck of their clothes, which had been discarded haphazardly.  Some had been enthusiastically torn.  Hux smirked at the memory.  
  
He got out of the bed and threw Ben a plain white short-sleeved tunic.  "Here, you won't need more than this, where we're going."  Hux pulled a matching tunic over his head and headed towards the door.  He smirked to himself again when Ben, cursing the cold stone against his feet, stumbled naked out of the bed and pulled the tunic over his head.  
  
He stopped, facing the door, away from Ben.  Thought of something he needed to ask Ben, before they went back downstairs.  
  
"Ben.  Where was Han tonight?"  
  
He could hear Ben stop still in the room.  Pause a moment.  
  
"I killed him."  
  
"I thought so.  I'd heard rumors."  Hux needed to say this, in case Ben had picked it up off him earlier.  "Why did you kill him?"  
  
Ben walked up to him, grabbed him from behind, wrapped his arms around his chest and rested his face against his neck.  "He told me to grow up."  
  
Hux snorted, raising a hand to grasp one of Ben's.  "I tell you that all the time, but you don't kill me."  
  
He could feel Ben wince against his neck.  "He said that I was wrong to give away the Skywalker heirloom to a monster like you.  That I should grow up and see you for what you are.  That it could be anyone but you, even if I didn't really want to marry Phasma."  
  
Hux kissed the back of his hand.  "I thought so."  
  
Now it was Ben that snorted.  "I thought I was the mind reader."  
  
Hux grinned, genuinely, into the backs of Ben's fingers.  Ben and Phasma were the only two who had ever brought such a smile to his face.  "You know I can do it too, in my way."  
  
"You can't read minds."  
  
"No, but I can read people.  I know just how to get what I want from them."  
  
At that, Hux pulled away and walked over to a small table by the door, which had a pitcher and mug on it.  One hand skated the underside of the table while the other poured.  He pretended to drank from the cup himself, then, passing it between his hands, he dropped something in it.  
  
"Here, before we go."  
  
Ben blearily took the cup as offered and downed the contents.  Hux smiled ghoulishly again, taking Ben's hand and leading him out into the hallway, the two of them naked save for the short white tunics that barely concealed, the obvious love bites that covered most of their visible skin, and their bed-wrecked hair.

 

* * *

 

"Ben."  
  
Ben could hear Hux's voice through a fog of confusion.  He wasn't sure if he could open his eyes or move, and he couldn't remember... he had come to Hux's castle, yes, and the two of them had... maybe he was in bed?  
  
With effort, Ben pried his eyes open blearily, a vague feeling of deja vu surfacing somewhere in his mind.  Ben was sitting up in a chair, and Hux was leaning over him, studying him with his cold, calculating blue eyes.  His face was giving nothing away.  Ben closed his eyes to try and slip a tendril of power into Hux's mind, and found he couldn't do it.  He opened his eyes wide, alarmed.  His personal connection to the flow of life had been severed.  He felt nothing.  He tried to tell Hux this, tried to stand up and grab him, tell him how wrong it was, but his mouth was opening and closing, nothing was coming out, and he couldn't stand for some reason, couldn't move his legs-  
  
"Shh.  It's all right."  Still bent over and studying him, Hux brought a hand up to caress Ben's cheek.  Ben couldn't feel it, which was even more alarming.  
  
Hux leaned forward to Ben's ear.  "I have to do something, Ben.  I'd say I'm sorry for it, but we both know that's not true."    
  
More alarm spiked through Ben.  Partially because Hux's breath in his ear was something he longed for constantly, and he couldn't feel it right now, but partially because Hux was a wicked man.  Ben loved that about him, but that he had planned this particular event as a surprise alarmed Ben.  Ben groped mentally for what was going on.  Was Hux trying some new sex thing?  
  
Hux leaned away and straightened.  "I had to give you something, because I didn't want you to be heroic at the last minute.  They told me it would keep you paralyzed, and that it should cut your magic, but that you should be able to see and hear.  I hope I didn't hurt you, that was not my intention.  Despite appearances to the contrary right now."  
  
Ben made a low groan in his throat, still not able to form proper words.  He tried to calm himself, finding bizarre solace in the thought that it was not out-of-character for Hux to drug him, and some part of him was softening at Hux's uncharacteristically loving words.  Hux was never that openly affectionate.  Which might make this situation worse - that Hux was reassuring him with affection, and was doing something bad enough that he needed to incapacitate Ben.  Maybe it was a sex thing.  He wasn't sure he wanted any part of this, but a small thrill shot through him anyway.  
  
Hux stepped back and away, turning to the rest of the room and showing Ben his back.  Ben's gaze drifted to Hux's ass, which was peeking out from below his short tunic.  Ben lost his train of thought for a moment at a recent memory of the small cheek cupped in his palm, but when he couldn't lift his hand to it, his mind jerked back to the matter at hand, and his eyes went to the rest of the room.

He wasn't in Hux's bedroom.  The realization hit him hard, and he was momentarily without thought.  
  
"The six Skywalkers that didn't share my bed tonight."  
  
Kylo looked around the perimeter of the room.  Arranged in a half-circle, bound by their wrists and suspended by long ropes from the murder holes on the ceiling, every member of his family hung, looking lifeless.  Luke and Leia were in the middle, Anakin and Rey were on Luke's left, Jacen and Jaina on Leia's right.  
  
Had Hux hung them all?  Killed them all, somehow?  He began to make a whining noise in his throat again, tried desperately to struggle against the chair.  
  
Hux turned back to him briefly, glancing coldly over his shoulder.  "What's wrong?  I haven't done anything yet.  You'll want to save that for later."  
  
Ben stopped struggling.  Wished Hux hadn't drugged him.  He could never bring himself to hurt Hux, he would never do that, but he could beg, plead, stop him from desecrating the corpses of his family-  
  
A low moan came from Jacen.  Ben's eyes went to him, studied his face.  Saw he was breathing.  Slowly began to realize everyone was still breathing.  Hux hadn't poisoned them and hung their bodies in the hall.  They were still alive.  
  
Was that good or bad?  Ben's stomach twisted in a new way when he realized that, if Hux had his family in this position, he would never let them leave his castle alive.  Ben included.  
  
The huge, scarred banquet table was still in the middle of the room, still covered with food detritus, dozing counselors, and guttering candles.  The candles in the grand chandelier lighting the hall had been refreshed, and the whole scene was bathed in a weird, flickering light that lent the appropriate air of madness to the event.  Between the table and the center and the far wall stood Phasma, candlelight glinting off her full armor, and a battery of soldiers in an array around her.    
  
"Brother," Phasma inclined her helmet in Hux's direction, her sword drawn and perched jauntily over her left shoulder.  Her helmet swiveled slightly.  "Husband."  
  
A look of annoyance crossed Hux's face, quickly smoothed back into his usual arrogant expression as he turned back to Phasma.  "Sister.  Now that Ben is awake, we may begin the festivities.  Leia is first.  You may have her."  Hux crossed his thin bare arms over his chest and leveled his gaze at the unconscious Leia.  
  
Phay nodded, and walked up to where Leia was hanging, bound and unconscious, by her arms.  Her feet dangled two feet above the floor.  Phasma approached, head at abdomen level, and seemed to consider the woman, looking her up and down with a nod of her helmet.  Leia did not wake when Phasma IV opened her stomach and spilled her guts onto the floor, the ropy intestines trailing from the gash to drag on the floor, back and forth, as the body swung with the momentum of the cut.  
  
Hux frowned.  "Behead her, sister.  I want that one to be merciful.  She deserves a warrior's death."  
  
Wordlessly, Phasma arced her sword high and took the head of Leia Skywalker.  
  
A high sound of protest came from Ben, behind him.  Hux turned around.  
  
"I told you you might not like this."  He took a step and caressed Ben's cheek again.  Ben felt the ghost of a touch this time, leaned into it.  Begged Hux with his eyes.  
  
Hux's eyes crinkled in amusement.  "Leia is quite right.  They'd rather have wizards rule here than a pair of bastards.  But if the wizards are gone, Phay and I look more appealing than total anarchy, don't we?  And not all the wizards will be gone."  His face settled into his usual arrogant neutral expression. He winked at Ben, then straightened again, turning and crawling through the detritus and garbage of the tabletop rather than going around.  He swung down to the floor on the other side, taking Phasma's bloody sword.  
  
Ben tried to move his head fractionally, still not feeling as if he had control of his muscles.  He was sitting in one of the chairs, pulled back from the great table.  Incredibly, the counselors at the table hadn't stirred through the disemboweling.  Ben could smell his aunt from here.  He looked at the guts, swinging back and forth, gore running thickly from the abdomen and the stump of her neck, where arterial spray had pumped out, staining Phasma's armor and some of the guests at the table.  Phasma's sword had cut into the meat of her arms, but had not severed them from her body, and it still hung by the wrists from the ceiling.  
  
His stomach twisted, and he made another high, whining sound, when Hux turned to Luke.  He turned his head briefly back to Ben.  
  
"I've always liked your father.  He's a good man.  But he wouldn't forgive me for this, and I'm sorry that I have to do it.  Close your eyes."  
  
Hux's remorse sounded genuine, and probably was, because Hux would never bother to feign remorse, not even for Ben, not even for this.  It didn't help.  Ben clenched his eyes shut and tried to reach out with his magic.  Tried to stir his father into wakefulness, tried to will his muscles to move.  He shook, slightly, but the flow of life was still silent, not within his grasp.  He heard a sick, splatting sound.  He waited a few pumps of his heart to assure himself he wouldn't have to watch his father's life blood pump from his body, and opened his eyes.  
  
Hux was facing him, blood spattering the front of his white tunic, bare arms, and his cheeks.  His body was mercifully blocking the view behind him.  Ben followed the rope down behind Hux's back in a panic, locking on Hux's face.  "Would he have let us be together, Ben?"  
  
He would not have, simply because Leia told him not to, though he was the only one who didn't speak against Hux, simply because he knew Ben loved him.  Ben knew this.  On some level, this horror, this terrible horror, this thing that Hux was doing and could never, ever take back, was for him.  His family would never let them be together.  They hated Hux.  Hated everything about him.  Thought him dangerous.  He would have been forced to stay in this castle, with his aunt and his cousins, and Hux would have likely been kept, under guard, within the borders of Arkanis.  Ben's father would have gone off on a training mission, something Ben had realized long ago was simply to escape, so that he didn't have to deal with life or the mistake that was Ben, a youthful folly he'd never been particularly affectionate to or overly fond of.  Ben would have been stuck in the castle under the sharp, judging scrutiny of Jacen, Jaina, and his aunt.  
  
There would have been nothing.  There was nothing without Hux, who was nothing without a kingdom to rule.  His passion was one of the things Ben loved best about him, and he likely would have killed himself before staying inside the borders of Arkanis.  And while Hux was certainly doing this because he'd listen to stories of Ben's miserable family life for decades, Ben wondered if Hux loved him or the kingdom best.  It didn't matter.  He would never ask, because either answer would be soiled after this.  
  
This.  This foul, foul thing.  Hux's passion, the thing Ben loved most, was causing him to decapitate his family, in front of him, while Ben watched helplessly.  He had just killed Ben's father.  
  
_It would have come to this eventually._   A voice whispered in his mind.  This voice always sounded like Hux, though he knew Hux didn't possess magic.  _Except your father would have killed Hux.  Which would you rather have, an absentee father or a passionate lover?_

Ben knew the answer, and hated himself for it.  He deserved Hux.

Ben closed his eyes again when Hux killed Anakin with a careless backswing.  Anakin hadn't been fully unconscious, and died with a half-strangled grunt from his mouth.  
  
"Hux," he pushed out in a whisper, past his paralyzed throat and parched mouth.  He opened his eyes.  "Rey."  
  
Hux turned to regard him again, though Ben wasn't sure why, there was no way he would have heard the whisper from where he was standing.  Perhaps the flow of life was returning to him, and reaching out to Hux subconsciously. 

"Rey.  Hm.  Let's wait on her a minute."  
  
He walked to the other side of the room, where Jacen and Jaina hung.  Ben followed him with his eyes, struggling less now, more curious.

These two were a different matter.  They were monsters.  They had always been monsters, likely just as much as Hux was.  Just as much as he himself was, with his _tainted_ magic, and the Hux voice in his head telling him that, perhaps, it was worth it after all if Hux had found a way to end these two.  Ben had tried, himself, but they were more powerful wizards than he was.  Trust Hux to come up with something as simple as poison.  Hux had always been good with details like that, the little underhanded sabotages that had helped his father win wars.  It was why he was standing there with a sword and taking his kingdom by rite of conquest, while Ben watched.  
  
Phasma had walked over with Hux.  The two stood in front of the twins, both looking up at them.  Hux handed Phasma her sword without turning around, and held his palm out expectantly.  Phasma wordlessly put a dagger into it.  
  
Hux turned back around to Ben.  "These two.  I should let you do this, because I think the only person who hates them more than me is you."  
  
Ben said nothing, simply watched Hux with interest.    
  
"But I won't, because it would rob me of the pleasure."  He turned back around to face the two, studying them closely.  
  
"I still can't tell them apart."  He pointed.  "Is this Jaina?"  He turned back around to see Ben, who managed a nod.  Hux smiled and turned back.  
  
"Then this one is Jacen."  He reached up with a bloodied hand, slapping Jacen's face with his palm.    
  
"Rise and shine.  I think these doses should be wearing off now.  I made sure to tell them to give you a light one."  
  
Jacen's eyes cracked open, then opened wider, taking in the sight of the rumpled, bloody, half-naked Hux and his hanging predicament.  
  
"The situation is indeed how it appears.  I'm told you're Jacen?"  Jacen stared down at Hux, not responding.  Ben was sure he was struggling to use the flow of life, to move his limbs, anything.  
  
Hux reached up to caress his face, and Ben felt an unwarranted spike of jealousy, quickly quashed.  "In another life, where I wasn't stupidly in love with your cousin, I might have accepted you in a royal betrothal.  I like the idea of having a lover with teeth, and yours are even more fierce than Ben's."  He took his hand down.  "But I like control, too, and I don't think you would have given that to me."  
  
Hux walked a couple paces and stood in front of Jaina, who was also awake, similarly still incapacitated and mute.   Hux stared silently for a few moments before continuing.  
  
"A shame, because I think you have some real darkness in you, Jacen.  Not as much as your cousin, so you'll still die.  But I suspect your magic might be almost as tainted as you always tell Ben his is."  Hux reached his arm delicately around Jaina's back, drawing her close and embracing her like a lover.  Ben was confused until, abruptly, Hux drove a dagger into her heart, leaving it there, gripped in his fist, as he gazed up into her face intently.  She jerked against the ropes, and Hux stared as her eyes fluttered and closed.  Jacen let out a low moan.  He twisted the dagger sharply before drawing it out.  Ben could hear ribs cracking.  
  
"Not as dark as me, either.  And it looks like I do know how to use a blade in the end, don't I?"  Hux paced back in front of Jacen, who was beginning to sway back and forth on his rope.  "I always suspected you and your sister had some sick sexual relationship.  And you had the nerve to make a joke about Ben and I earlier!  Maybe that relationship was why you were both such perfect, self-righteous terrors.  It would also explain why your mother was so insistent that you two weren't part of the succession."  Hux cocked his head.  "Killing her in front of you was the cruelest thing I could think of to do.  I thought about drawing your death out longer, but you're just too dangerous to keep alive.  Despite frequent boasting, I think your cousin wouldn't be able to handle you.  Alas, I may not be able to handle your cousin after this, either."    
  
With that, Hux grabbed Jacen and plunged the dagger into his stomach in one smooth motion, drawing it up, spilling his bowels on the floor.  Ben could see the blood splash back up from the floor against the table and onto the guests, and Hux's legs were likely bathed in it as well.  The smell of the open abdomen came back over to Ben again, and Ben wondered briefly if he was still too paralyzed to gag, or was simply not that stunned at Jacen's death.  
  
Hux studied Jacen a moment longer, then took a step back and walked around the massive table, bloody dagger still clenched in one hand.  
  
"Hux," Ben forced out of his mouth again, words coming more easily to him now.  
  
Hux stopped in front of him and smiled, looking like a nightmare.  He had Skywalker blood all over him, and Ben could still see love bites through the gore.  His red hair, streaked with gore and more red, shone in the candlelight, though no light reached his eyes now.  
  
"Ben.  I would do anything to keep you.  Do you know that?  Do you believe me?"  
  
Ben broke eye contact with Hux to take in the scene behind him, the five dead bodies and one live one hanging on the wall.  He carefully met his gaze again, seeing madness in it.  Sickly, he wondered if he was safe, or if he would kill Ben too, if the answer to his earlier question about whether he or the kingdom was more important would turn out to be more bitter than Ben anticipated.  
  
"Yes, Hux.  Always.  You... didn't...."  
  
"Shh."  Hux put his hand to Ben's cheek again.  Ben thought about trying to move his hands again.  He could feel the beginnings of the flow of life stirring in his mind, though not enough to do anything at present.  
  
"Ben.  It would have come to this eventually.  You know this?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Good.  The Skywalkers are going to disappear.  You will stay here with me.  Nobody will hear from them again, and when they can't be found, you will be declared heir to the kingdom.  We will rule together."  
  
Hux paused.  Ben said nothing.  When he doesn't respond, Hux's caress turns into a tight grip.  
  
"One might say I saw the future, though I don't possess the same prognostication skills that your late family did, or that you claim to.  What I just described to you?  That's a true vision of the future.  It will come to pass.  Either you rule willingly with me by my side, or you will stay on this drug the rest of your life.  I'd rather trust you, Ben.  Or, at least, trust you enough to leave you free.  It will thrill me to have you free, wondering if you're going to stab me in the back while I'm taking you one day."  
  
A tear ran down Ben's face.  "I'll do it."  He whispered.  "But Rey..."  
  
Hux frowned, removed his hands.  "We can't let her live, Ben, for the same reason I had to kill your father.  She'll come back for me and Phay.  I can't risk it."  
  
Ben closed his eyes.  "Let me... mind-wipe her.  Remove her memories.  We can... send her away.  She won't know who she is."  
  
Hux paused.  Ben didn't open his eyes.  "You can do that."  
  
"Yes."  Ben whispered, again.  "I couldn't do it to anyone else, but I'm stronger than her.  That's not a lie.  I'll do it right now, just send her away, let her be okay.  She... she wasn't the same as them.  She's... too young for this."  
  
He opened his eyes and looked into Hux's face, seeing the resolve there, wondering if the citizens of this kingdom knew better than Ben all along.  Wondering if it really made any difference to Ben.  
  
He dropped his gaze into his lap, and lifted his heavy arms to rest there, hands numbly clenched together.  He heard Hux walking away, likely to confer with Phasma.  Ben didn't care.  He knew Hux would always come back to him.  
  
He'd damned himself.  Hux had damned him.  He would be more likely to go on living without drawing another breath than he would knowing that he would never have Hux's rough, selfish love again.  Their most recent parting had been torture.  His family had kept him confined to prevent him running away to Hux.  Every day, he wondered if it would be the one where he'd see Hux's cold blue stare, feel his rough, biting kisses.  He knew he'd get to see him again.  Perhaps, secretly, in the depths of his mind, he had been hoping for something exactly like what Hux had just done.  
  
And now, every time he looked at Hux, he'd have to think of him disemboweling Jacen, of him walking away while Jacen gasped his last breaths out against the wall.  Ben looked over at him.  He still breathed, was looking at both of them with hate.  Part of Ben wanted the drug to wear off enough for Jacen to kill them both with the flow of life.  That would be the ending they deserved.  
  
Perhaps that would be the ending that Ben gave them, one day.

**Author's Note:**

> Long story short - The prompt here was for a Game of Thrones AU with Hux Lannister and Ren Stark. I don't actually know that much about Game of Thrones, nor am I completely sure ripping off one of the most famous scenes satisfies the prompt. My apologies if this wasn't what you had in mind!
> 
> Also, it occurred to me that some of this could be interpreted as homophobic, which was not my intention. It's just an unfortunate combination of the inheritance trope and Hux being purposefully insufferable, mostly the latter.


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